Washington Nationals Minor Leagues Players Of The Week: (7/6-7/12)

(Photo Credit: MILB.com)

 Syracuse Chiefs (39-57)

Hitter Of The Week: SS Trea Turner (.276, 2 HR, 6 RBI’s)

With the struggles that Ian Desmond has had at the Major League level this season, all eyes have been on the 22-year-old Turner, who joined the Nationals organization a little over a month ago. This week, before playing in the Futures Game, Turner was able to rack up the hits. In six games, Turner went 10-for-19 at the plate with a home run, three RBI’s, and four runs scored.

In his final game before going to Cincinnati, Turner hit a solo home run in Game two of a doubleheader against the Rochester Red Wings (Minnesota Twins). He had two three hit performances (July 6 against Pawtucket and July 8 vs. Scranton Wilkes-Barre). After having two RBI’s in the Futures Game yesterday, it will only increase the eyes on one of the Nats’ top position prospects.

Honorable Mention: RF Caleb Ramsey (.294, 1 HR, 15 RBI’s)

This season, Ramsey has alternated between Harrisburg and Syracuse, but he had an excellent series against the Yankees’ triple-A affiliate, Scranton Wilkes-Barre. During that series, he went 8-for-13 with two runs scored and two RBI’s. On July 9, he went 4-for-4 in Syracuse’s 5-2 win.

One of the impressive stats about Ramsey this season is having a four hit game is nothing new to him. The Chiefs have had four four hit performances this season, but Ramsey has had three of them and two of them have come this month (July 4 vs. Pawtucket). This month, he is hitting .419 in nine games and he leads the team in on-base percentage (.361).

Pitcher Of The Week SP A.J. Cole (1-4, 3.91 ERA)

This past week, Cole was able to record his first win of the season during Game one of a doubleheader against Rochester on July 10. The 23-year-old was making his first start since June 29 due to injury and he didn’t skip a beat. He went six innings, gave up two hits, struck out two, and walked one in the Chiefs’ 4-0 win.

Cole threw 44 of his 71 pitches for strikes that day and got seven of the 21 batters he faced to hit groundball outs. Plus, remember that in a doubleheader, the two teams play seven inning games instead of nine. Now that he is healthy, he will look to rebound from a bad June where he went 0-2 with a 6.48 ERA in five games.

Honorable Mention: RP Jose Valverde (0-0, 2.59 ERA)

When the Nationals signed Jose Valverde to a minor league contract back in April, it was unknown if the 37-year-old was going to be able to make a contribution at the Major League level. While he hasn’t done that yet, he is starting to find his form in Syracuse. Valverde made four appearances this past week and gave up one run while converting all four of his save opportunities.

Valverde is 8-for-8 on save chances this season and had a 0.90 ERA in ten games during the month of June. While he did give up a run on July 8 against Scranton, it was the first time the right-hander allowed someone to score since June 17 against Toledo (Detroit Tigers), which is a span of eight games.

Next: Double-A